I can’t boast the cool scenery some of you guys have to offer on your way to work, but at least the asphalt is nice. (details about “that weird thing” in the comments)

“That weird thing” is actually a velomobile, a fully faired recumbent tricycle – it always stroke me as odd how in English, the number of wheels is in the name. This particular design is a W9, a monocoque construction (meaning the hull *is* the frame) weighing in at around 22 kg as shown in the photos without my luggage. If you imagine a very aero road biker, and then make them about a tenth of their original size, you get basically the effective frontal surface of a velomobile; it’s all about drag. The result is a bike (well, a trike…) that can reach 50 km/h at sustained 180 Watts, or even less on perfectly optimised models.

It turns a 35 km commute into a ca. one hour long trip (depending on train crossings and red lights), without any power besides what my body can produce.